I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 63- Kent Bottenfield

Kent Bottenfield most memorable season as a professional baseball player came in 1999 while he was pitching for the Cardinals.  Prior to landing a job with the Cardinals, Bottenfield had made appearances with the Expos, Rockies, Giants, and Cubs.  Most teams mainly used him as a reliever.  The Expos and Rockies had both used Bottenfield as a starter, but that did not go very well.

Bottenfield joined the Cardinals as a free agent in January of 1998.  He was a long reliever in 1998 and was thrown into the starting rotation at the beginning of the 1999 season.  Bottenfield's 18 wins, 3.97 ERA, and All-Game appearance are often cited as some of Dave Duncan's finest work as a pitching coach. 

Someone posted a clip of his All-Star game appearance on YouTube.  He gave up a few runs, but also struck out Ivan Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.  Definitely a highlight.....

Bottenfield really has a limited amount of baseball cards with the Cardinals.  So, a quick tour.  He did not consistently appear in sets, even after the 18 win season.  Most card companies put him in a few of their products, but he never was amongst the core of Cardinals players who made all of a brand's sets.  

Pacific was one of my favorite brands from this era.  They actually had a 1998 card of Bottenfield in their Omega set, but I like the card in the 1999 set better.  

Pacific also used him in some of their 2000 sets as a Cardinal after he was traded away.  Nice cards, but he had nicer 2000 cards I will get to in a minute.  

Upper Deck might have been the stingiest company with Bottenfield cards, but their sets were stuffed with McGwire, Ankiel, and J.D. Drew cards at this point.  Give a spot to Ray Lankford, Fernando Tatis, maybe a Matt Morris or Andy Benes.  Not much room for other players from the Cardinals.  His most notable Cardinals card in an Upper Deck product was his appearance in the team's McDonald's set from 1999......

These cards were sold at McDonald's restaurants in the St. Louis area, I believe as a set, not a giveaway at the stadium.  The usual suspects were in the set, but Upper Deck put several players in this set who were not in other sets in 1999.  Bottenfield and Shawon Dunston are the two of them.  

Bottenfield did not get a Topps card with the Cardinals in 1998 or 1999, but they did manage to squeeze him into the 2000 set.  

There were no traded or update sets in 1998 and 1999, so I kind of get it.  Still, it's hard to believe that a relief pitcher who popped up in more than 60 games in 1998 could not get a card in the 1999 set.  This was also the small set phase for Topps.  I believe they were down to 400 some cards in the base set.  

The best two Bottenfield cards with the Cardinals are his autographs, which both came out in 2000 after he was traded.  He has a Fleer and a Skybox autograph.  The Fleer is a FreshInk card, the Skybox is an Autographics.  Both were cross product autograph sets, not sure what products contained Bottenfield autographs.  I own the Skybox card....

It's like a piece of artwork.  Bottenfield is consistent with his autograph too.  I love it when players care about their signature.  This is a great looking card, 90% of it is the autograph.  

So, the end of Bottenfield in a Cardinals uniform took place at the end of Spring Training in 2000 when the Cardinals traded him to the Angels, along with Adam Kennedy, for free agent to be Jim Edmonds. 

The Cardinals seemed to frequently trade for players in walk years during the late 1990s and early 2000s, let them play in St. Louis for the year, and then sign them.  Edmonds had a great 2000 with the Cardinals and signed a contract in the middle of the season to stay in St. Louis.  He ended up playing on the Cardinals for 8 seasons in all.  He helped the Cardinals win the 2006 World Series, win two National League pennants, and reach the National League Championship three other times.  While he is off the Hall of Fame ballot for the moment, Edmonds should make it at some point through the Veterans Committee.  Whatever it is now called.  

Edmonds popped up on a baseball card as a Cardinal long before Bottenfield showed up as an Angel.  Although, Bottenfield only lasted half a season in Anaheim before he was traded to the Phillies for Ron Gant.  He was never able to match his 1999 season with the Cardinals, but Bottenfield stuck around for a few more seasons before retiring.  

A Venerable Old Card Part 34

This week is more of a two-for of two Cardinals players who were traded for each other.  Angels fans avert your eyes.....

The 1999 Cardinals have a pretty good case for being one of the worst team's that the franchise has fielded over the past twenty years.  The team has had exactly three losing seasons during that stretch, but the 1999 team was especially brutal.  While the team's offense featured Mark McGwire (176 OPS+), Fernando Tatis (139), and Ray Lankford (118) the pitching staff for the club was brutal.  

Kent Merker, Darren Oliver, Jose Jiminez, and Garrett Stepehenson made up four fifths of the rotation, but there were spot starts from Juan Acevedo, Lance Painter, and Larry Luebbers.  Ouch.  The bright spot was veteran Kent Bottenfield who spent the first few years of his career with the Expos, Rockies, and Cubs.  

In 1999, he won 18 games and made the National League All-Star team.  

At the end of the year the Cardinals rightfully blew up the team.  Kent Bottenfield survived the off-season and made it to the team's spring training along side several new players.  The team signed Mike Matheny away from the Blue Jays, Andy Benes away from the Diamondbacks, they traded for Fernando Vina, Pat Hentgen, Dave Veres, and Darryl Kile.  Plus they brought up some young players from the Minors like Rick Ankiel and Placido Polanco.  

The team looked good on paper and returning ace Kent Bottenfield got a Fleer Autographics card that spring too.  He's got a great signature.....

Always loved the Autographics cards from the late 1990s/early 2000s.  All on card signatures and there are a ton of players who signed for the set.  Probably not as good of a checklist as the Donruss Signature sets, or Leaf Signature set, but still very nice.  

In late March of 2000 at the end of Spring Training, Kent Bottenfield and his great looking signature got shipped off to the Angels for Jim Edmonds.  Well, the Angels also got Adam Kennedy in the trade too, but it was a bit lopsided in favor of the Cardinals.  Bottenfield went on to pitch in 29 games in 2000, but that included 8 starts with the Phillies after the Halos traded him for Ron Gant.  

Edmonds went on to win a bunch of Gold Gloves and managed to get the Cardinals into two World Series during his time in St. Louis.  While they lost the 2004 Series, Edmonds was a huge part of the 2006 Series win against the Tigers.  

It didn't take long for Edmonds to get his first Cardinals card of 2000 which appeared in the second series of the Upper Deck set.  I have always liked this card for several reasons......

First, I like that Upper Deck did not use an airbrushed photo for the card.  At this point, I am pretty sure that UD either pushed the players card back to a later series, or they left them in their old uniform, but put the logo of their new team on the card.  Clearly a Spring Training picture after Edmonds got traded.  I also like that they have a picture of Edmonds in his batting stance.  Most people remember Jimmy Ballgame for his fielding exploits, but I always liked his stance....

It was a fun few years collecting cards of Edmonds and I still try to pick up some cool ones when I run across them.  

The Best Looking Ray Lankford Checklist Ever

I have written a little bit about the Pacific checklists before, but picked up a great look one last week. I dare say, this might be the best checklist that Pacific ever put out.  If you did not click the link in the sentence that started this article, if did skip ahead past this sentence, Pacific actually made their checklists inserts.  Not easy to find inserts at that.  Often the checklists were one per box or harder.  Add in the fact that they ARE checklists and collectors do not sell or trade them, because they are a checklist, and you have got a difficult to find card.

This Lankford, McGwire, Bottenfield 2000 Pacific checklist has been on my radar for a long time.  I once saw it at a card shop in St. Louis with a $25 price tag on it.  $25 for a checklist?  No.  I've seen it on Ebay once or twice for a similar price.  The last time I saw it there it actually sold for $20.  I was starting to think that I was going to have to buck up and drop an Andrew Jackson on this card, but COMC bailed me out by listing on for $3.  Thank you someone!